Felix Hernandez, one of baseball's youngest and most dominant starting pitchers is set to sign a seven-year, $175 million contract extension. The deal will likely keep him in Seattle through the prime years of his already impressive career.

The size of Felix's contract also creates an even more lucrative market for future top starting pitchers, should they decide to enter the free agent market.

That's not good news for Red Sox fans who hope to see another ace in Boston in the near future.

Ever since Roger Clemens burst on the scene in 1986, Boston Red Sox fans have grown
accustomed to having an ace in their rotation.

If it wasn't Clemens, then it was Pedro Martinez or Curt Schilling or even Josh Beckett for a few seasons.

Beckett is gone, and even before he was traded to Los Angeles he had stopped performing like an ace.

Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz both arrived in the majors with hopes of becoming that type of pitcher.

As of now, neither of them have proven that they are dominant starting pitchers.

Barnes certainly could develop into an ace. He's got great stuff, and he's looked very good in his limited minor league experience.

He also could become just another above-average starter. Not anything to be upset about, but not a guy who will conjure up images of Clemens, Martinez or Schilling.

The real problem is that if the Red Sox don't have an ace in their system, they're probably going to have to do a fair amount of winning without one.

That's because the top arms in baseball all seem likely to be locked up long-term by their respective teams.

Last season the Philadelphia Phillies signed Cole Hamels to a lucrative long-term extension. The San Francisco Giants did the same with Matt Cain.

Former MLB general manager Jim Bowden of ESPN.com thinks that aces such as Justin Verlander, and Clayton Kershaw will forgo free agency and sign big-money contracts to stay with their current teams.

Bowden could be wrong, but teams like the Detroit Tigers and Los Angeles Dodgers certainly don't appear likely to pinch pennies when it comes to their former Cy Young-winning, No. 1 starters.

With Hernandez off the market, and Verlander and Kershaw both likely to remain in their current locations, the starting pitching market is getting increasingly limited.

Jared Weaver signed a long-term extension to stay with the Los Angeles Angels back in August of 2011.

Cliff Lee and Roy Halladay are both past their primes, and the rest of the league's top young arms are still years away from free agency.

There is really only one true bonafide No. 1 starting pitcher who could be available in the next few years.

David Price of the Tampa Bay Rays.

Price is the reigning American League cy young winner. He's not a eligible to become a free agent until the conclusion of the 2015 season.

Price is arbitration eligible at the end of next season, and if he continues to perform at a Cy Young level then he will get a hefty raise from his 2013 salary of $10 million.

Tampa has one of baseball's better supplies of young pitchers, they already dealt James Shields this past season, and they could opt to deal Price rather than pay him more and more money until he bolts as a free agent.

The odds of Tampa dealing Price within their own division seem fairly slim. The odds of them dealing Price to the Red Sox, a team they've fought for playoff spots for the better part of the past five seasons, seems even slimmer.

That leaves the Red Sox staring at a few far less certain scenarios.

The team can continue to rely on Buchholz and Lester, hoping that one or even both of them can experience a resurgence and mature into an ace.

The Red Sox can hope that Barnes, Owens or Webster surprise the scouts and become top starting pitchers.

Or the Red Sox can try and figure out a way to pry one of baseball's top pitching prospects away from another team.

As well-regarded as Barnes is, he's not in the same class as the Baltimore Orioles Dylan Bundy, Taijuan Walker and Danny Hultzen of the Seattle Mariners, or Gerrit Cole and Jameson Taillon of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Prying one of those types of pitching prospects away from another team is much easier said than done. In this day and age of stratospheric salaries and regulated pitch counts, young starting pitchers are not something teams part with unless they're bowled over by an offer.

For now it appears the Red Sox aren't inclined to make a deal large enough to land one of those types of pitching prospects. That type of trade would probably require the Red Sox parting with either an established star such as Dustin Pedroia, or an up-and-coming one such as Will Middlebrooks plus prospects like Xander Bogaerts or Jackie Bradley.

Add it all up and Red Sox fans who are waiting to find the next Pedro Martinez, Roger Clemens or Curt Schilling should probably be patient.